Ask your MP to support a motion raising awareness of this issue in the UK Parliament.

Easy action YOU can take to help protect freshwater invertebrates

There are several elements to our campaign to help protect freshwater invertebrates from pesticide pollution as a result of tick and flea pet treatments. If you want to help raise awareness, an easy action you can do is contacting your MP, inviting them to sign this Early Day Motion (EDM): Fipronil and Imidacloprid Pesticides – Early Day Motions – UK Parliament

What is an Early Day Motion?

An Early Day Motion, known as an EDM, is a bit like a petition but just for MPs to sign. Any MP, no matter their political party, can sign an EDM and because it doesn’t expire until the end of the parliamentary session, it is a great way of accumulating formal, non controversial, cross-party support for a cause. Early Day Motions can lead to debates which help raise awareness but even without the debate, the list of signatories can lead to awareness and progress in one way or another as it shows the breadth of support. By you making your MP aware of this EDM, there is a greater likelihood of your MP signing it and the more MPs sign it, the stronger our collective voice for bugs becomes.

If you would like to ask your MP to sign this Early Day Motion here are the easy steps:-

Find out who your MP is and/or find their email address here.

When writing the email to your MP, it’s better to keep the message short and clear. If you don’t know quite what to say, you could say something like the following (amending as you wish of course):

Dear (enter name of MP),

I’m writing as your constituent to urge you to sign this Early Day Motion addressing the use of neonicotinoid pesticides in pet flea and tick treatments Fipronil and Imidacloprid Pesticides – Early Day Motions – UK Parliament. These chemicals have been banned for agricultural outdoor use since 2018 due to their proven toxicity to non-target wildlife. Yet they continue to contaminate UK freshwater ecosystems through pet treatments, where they pose a documented threat to aquatic invertebrates—the foundation of our aquatic food chains and a vital indicator of water quality.

For more information, you can read Buglife’s new report entitled, The Effects of Veterinary Tick and Flea Treatments on Freshwater Invertebrates and Ecosystems,’ which you can read here.

Yours sincerely

(enter your full name, address and postcode so your MP knows that you are a constituent otherwise they are not obliged to reply to you).

When you have finished writing your email, be sure to include your full name, address and postcode otherwise your MP’s office is not obliged to reply to you.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Hannah Bourne-Taylor who is the Campaign Officer working on this campaign at [email protected]